TODAY’S RADIO

The Reith Lectures 2018

9AM, RADIO 4

Civilians have been targeted in wars since the dawn of time.

Their worth as slaves in a world before machines was invaluable. Mass rape has been used as an instrument of war, along with starvation and the slaughter of noncombatants, for millennia. The historian Margaret MacMillan dissects the relationship between war and the civilian in the third of her fascinating Reith Lectures.

Laura Barton’s Notes From A Musical Island

11.30AM, RADIO 4

Laura Barton walks along the golden sands of the beach of a city that sparkles like silver. Laura is in Aberdeen, the ‘Granite City’, to hear some of the music played in this port on the northeast coast of Scotland. The area has always had a strong musical tradition, and Laura hears both music that has its

Isy Suttie (4.30pm, Radio 4)

roots in Scottish culture as well as some very 21st-century Aberdonian sounds from singer-songwriter Kathryn Joseph, Alan Davidson of the Kitchen Cynics, and fatherdaughter duo Best Girl Athlete.

A Good Read

4.30PM, RADIO 4

The writer and actor Isy Suttie and the comedian Lolly Adefope join Harriett Gilbert to talk about their current favourite books.

Barry Manilow –

They Write The Songs

9PM, RADIO 2

The 1967 musical Hallelujah Baby! made Leslie Uggams a star, and it won five Tony Awards. Despite all this, Hallelujah Baby! was a flop. Barry Manilow tells the story of the show, and salvages the hit songs from the wreckage. He also looks at Cole Porter’s Out Of This World and at Richard Rodgers’s No Strings in his continuing series on forgotten shows with good tunes.

The Essay:

The Meaning Of Beaches

10.45PM, RADIO 3

Millions of years ago, a bed of molten lava cooled down and contracted, forming great pillars of basalt, many of them hexagonal in shape. This geological wonder on the coast of Northern Ireland has spawned many myths and legends. Fiona Stafford looks at the cultural significance of the Giant’s Causeway.